THE ALASKAN DOGS
[Sidenote: MALAMUTE, HUSKY, AND SIWASH]
THERE are two breeds of native dogs in Alaska, and a third that is
usually spoken of as such. The malamute is the Esquimau dog; and what
for want of a better name is called the "Siwash" is the Indian dog. Many
years ago the Hudson Bay voyageurs bred some selected strains of
imported dog with the Indian dogs of those parts, or else did no more
than carefully select the best individuals of the native species and
bred from them exclusively--it is variously stated--and that is the
accepted origin of the "husky." The malamute and the husky are the two
chief sources of the white man's dog teams, though cross-breeding with
setters and pointers, hounds of various sorts, mastiffs, Saint Bernards,
and Newfoundlands has resulted in a general admixture of breeds, so that
the work dogs of Alaska are an heterogeneous lot to-day. It should also
be stated that the terms "malamute" and "husky" are very generally
confused and often used interchangeably.
The malamute, the Alaskan Esquimau dog, is precisely the same dog as
that found amongst the natives of Baffin's Bay and Greenland. Knud
Rasmunsen and Amundsen together have established the oneness of the
Esquimaux from the east coast of Greenland all round to Saint Michael;
they are one people, speaking virtually one language. And the malamute
dog is one dog. A photograph that Admiral Peary prints of one of the
Smith Sound dogs that pulled his sled to the North Pole would pass for a
photograph of one of the present writer's team, bred on the Koyukuk
River, the parents coming from Kotzebue Sound.
There was never animal better adapted to environment than the malamute
dog. His coat, while it is not fluffy, nor the hair long, is yet so
dense and heavy that it affords him a perfect protection against the
utmost severity of cold. His feet are tough and clean, and do not
readily accumulate snow between the toes and therefore do not easily get
sore--which is the great drawback of nearly all "outside" dogs and their
mixed progeny. He is hardy and thrifty and does well on less food than
the mixed breeds; and, despite Peary to the contrary, he will eat
anything. "He will not eat anything but meat," says Peary; "I have tried
and I know." No dog accustomed to a flesh diet willingly leaves it for
other food; the dog is a carnivorous animal. But hunger will whet his
appetite for anything that his bowels can digest. "Muk," the counterpart
of Peary's "King Malamute," has thriven for years on his daily ration of
dried fish, tallow, and rice, and eats biscuits and doughnuts whenever
he can get them. The malamute is affectionate and faithful and likes to
be made a pet of, but he is very jealous and an incorrigible fighter. He
has little of the fawning submissiveness of pet dogs "outside," but is
independent and self-willed and apt to make a troublesome pet. However,
pets that give little trouble seldom give much pleasure.
His comparative shortness of leg makes him somewhat better adapted to
the hard, crusted snow of the coast than to the soft snow of the
interior, but he is a ceaseless and tireless worker who loves to pull.
His prick ears, always erect, his bushy, graceful tail, carried high
unless it curl upon the back as is the case with some, his compact coat
of silver-grey, his sharp muzzle and black nose and quick narrow eyes
give him an air of keenness and alertness that marks him out amongst
dogs. When he is in good condition and his coat is taken care of he is a
handsome fellow, and he will weigh from seventy-five to eighty-five or
ninety pounds.
The husky is a long, rangy dog, with more body and longer legs than the
malamute and with a shorter coat. The coat is very thick and dense,
however, and furnishes a sufficient protection. A good, spirited husky
will carry his tail erect like a malamute, but the ears are not
permanently pricked up; they are mobile. He is, perhaps, the general
preference amongst dog drivers in the interior, but he has not the
graceful distinction of appearance of the malamute.
The "Siwash" dog is the common Indian dog; generally undersized, uncared
for, half starved most of the time, and snappish because not handled
save with roughness. In general appearance he resembles somewhat a small
malamute, though, indeed, nowadays so mixed have breeds become that he
may be any cur or mongrel. He is a wonderful little worker, and the
loads he will pull are astonishing. Sometimes, with it all, he is an
attractive-looking fellow, especially when there has been a good moose
or caribou killing and he has gorged upon the refuse and put some flesh
upon his bones. And if one will take a little trouble to make friends
with him he likes petting as much as any dog. Most Indian dogs "don't
sabe white man," and will snap at one's first advances. On the whole, it
is far better to let them alone; for, encouraged at all, they are
terrible thieves--what hungry creatures are not?--and make all sorts of
trouble with one's own team. The pure malamute and the pure husky do not
bark at all, they howl; barking is a sure sign of an admixture of other
strains.
[Sidenote: DOG BREEDING]
Here it may be worth while to say a few words about the general belief
that dogs in Alaska are interbred with wolves. That the dog and the wolf
have a common origin there can be no doubt, and that they will
interbreed is equally sure, but diligent inquiry on the part of the
writer for a number of years, throughout all interior Alaska, amongst
whites and natives, has failed to educe one authentic instance of
intentional interbreeding, has failed to discover one man who knows of
his own knowledge that any living dog is the offspring of such union.
While, therefore, it is not here stated that such cross-breeding has not
taken place, or even that it does not take place, yet the author is
satisfied that it is a very rare thing, indeed, and that the common
stories of dogs that are "half wolf" are fabulous.
Indeed, it seems a rare thing when any sort of pains is taken about the
breeding of dogs. In a country where dogs are so important, where they
are indispensable for any sort of travel during six or seven months in
the year over by far the greater portion of it, one would expect that
much attention would be paid to dog breeding; but this is not the case.
Here and there a man who takes pride in a team will carefully mate the
best available couple and carefully rear their offspring, but for the
most part breeding seems left to chance. A team all of malamutes or all
of huskies, a matched team of any sort, is the exception, and excites
interest and remark.
The market for dogs is so uncertain that it is doubtful if there would
be any money in scientific breeding for the trail. When a stampede to
new diggings takes place, the price of dogs rises enormously. Any sort
of good dog on the spot may be worth a hundred dollars, or a hundred and
fifty, and the man with a kennel would make a small fortune out of hand.
But at other times it is hard to get twenty-five dollars for the best of
dogs.
The cost of maintenance of a dog team is considerable. When the
mail-routes went all down the Yukon, and dogs were used exclusively, the
contracting company estimated that it cost seventy-five dollars per head
per annum to feed its dogs; while to the traveller in remote regions,
buying dog feed in small parcels here and there, the cost is not less
than one hundred dollars per head. Of course, a man engaged in dog
raising would have his own fish-wheel on the Yukon and would catch
almost all that his dogs would eat. Fish is plentiful in Alaska; it is
transportation that costs. Dogs not working can do very well on
straight dried fish, but for the working dog this ration is supplemented
by rice and tallow or other cereal and fat; not only because the animal
does better on it, but also because straight dried fish is a very bulky
food, and weight for weight goes not nearly so far. Cooking for the dogs
is troublesome, but economical of weight and bulk, and conserves the
vigour of the team. In the summer-time the dogs are still an expense.
They must be boarded at some fish camp, at a cost of about five dollars
per head per month.
The white man found the dog team in use amongst the natives all over the
interior, but he taught the Indian how to drive dogs. The natives had
never evolved a "leader." Some fleet stripling always ran ahead, and the
dogs followed. The leader, guided by the voice, "geeing" and "hawing,"
stopping and advancing at the word of command, is a white man's
innovation, though now universally adopted by the natives. So is the dog
collar. The "Siwash harness" is simply a band that goes round the
shoulders and over the breast. In the interior the universal "Siwash"
hitch was tandem, and is yet, but as trails have widened and improved,
more and more the tendency grows amongst white men to hitch two abreast;
and the most convenient rig is a lead line to which each dog is attached
independently by a single-tree, either two abreast, or, by adding a
further length to the lead line, one behind the other, so that on a
narrow trail the tandem rig may be quickly resorted to.
[Sidenote: THE DOCKING OF TAILS]
One advantage of the change from single to double rig is the decay of
the cruel custom of "bobbing" the dogs' tails. When dogs are hitched
one close behind the other (and the closer the better for pulling) the
tail of the dog in front becomes heavy with ice from the condensation of
the breath of the dog behind, until not only is he carrying weight but
the use of the tail for warmth at night is foregone. So it was the
universal practice to cut tails short off. But sleeping out in the open,
as travelling dogs often must do, in all sorts of weather, with the
thermometer at 50 deg. or 60 deg. below zero sometimes, a thick, bushy tail is a
great protection to a dog. With it he covers nose and feet and is tucked
up snug and warm. It is the dog's natural protection for the muzzle and
the thinly haired extremities. A few years ago almost all work dogs in
the interior were bobtailed; now the plumes wave over the teams again.
Five dogs are usually considered the minimum team, and seven dogs make a
good team. A good, quick-travelling load for a dog team is fifty pounds
to the dog, on ordinary trails. The dogs will pull as much as one
hundred pounds apiece or more, but that becomes more like freighting
than travelling. On a good level trail with strong big dogs, men
sometimes haul two hundred pounds to the dog. These, however, are
"gee-pole propositions," in the slang of the trail, and the man is doing
hard work with a band around his chest and the pole in his hand. For
quick travelling, fifty pounds to the dog is enough.
The most useful "outside" strains that the white man has introduced into
the dogs of the interior are the pointer and setter and collie. The
bird-dogs themselves make very fast teams and soon adapt themselves to
the climate, but their feet will not stand the strain. The collie's
intelligence would make him a most admirable leader, did he not have so
pronouncedly the faults of his good qualities; he wants to do all the
work; he works himself to death. It is the leader's business to keep the
team strung out; it is not his business to pull the load. But the
admixture of these strains with the native blood has produced some very
fine dogs. The Newfoundland and Saint Bernard strains have been perhaps
the least successful admixtures. They are too heavy and cumbersome and
always have tender feet; their bodies and the bodies of their mongrel
progeny are too heavy for their feet.
[Sidenote: DOG LOYALTY]
The last statement, with regard to Newfoundland and Saint Bernard dogs,
has an interesting exception. There is a dog, not uncommon in Alaska,
that by a curious inversion of phrase is known as the "one-man-dog."
What is meant is the "one-dog-man dog," the dog that belongs to the man
that uses only one dog. Many and many a prospector pulls his whole
winter grub-stake a hundred miles or more into the hills with the aid of
one dog. His progress is slow, in bad places or on up grades he must
relay, and all the time he is doing more work than the dog is, but he
manages to get his stuff to his cabin or his camp with no other aid than
one dog can give. It is usually a large heavy dog--speed never being
asked of him, nor steady continuous winter work--often of one of the
breeds mentioned, or of its predominant strain. The companionship
between such a man and such a dog is very close, and the understanding
complete. Sometimes the dog will be his master's sole society for the
whole winter.
Indeed, any man of feeling who spends the winters with a dog team must
grow to a deep sympathy with the animals, and to a keen, sometimes
almost a poignant, sense of what he owes to them. There is a mystery
about domestic animals of whatever kind. It is a mystery that man should
be able to impose his will upon them, change their habits and
characters, constrain them to his tasks, take up all their lives with
unnatural toil. And that he should get affection and devotion in return
makes the mystery yet more mysterious.
The dog gets his food--often of poor quality and scant quantity--and
that is all he gets. Yet the life of a work dog that has a kind and
considerate master is not an unhappy one. The dog is as full of the
canine joy of life as though he had never worn a collar, and not only
sports and gambols when free, but really seems to like his work and do
it gladly. He will chafe at inaction; he will come eagerly to the
harness in the morning; often will come before he is called and ask to
be harnessed; and if for any reason--lameness or galled neck or sore
feet--a dog is cut out of the team temporarily, to run loose, he will
try at every chance to get back into his place and will often attack the
dog that seems to him to be occupying it; while a dog left behind will
howl most piteously and make desperate efforts to break his chain and
rejoin his companions and his labour. And the wonderful and pitiful
thing about it is that no sort of severity or brutality on his master's
part will destroy that zealous allegiance. The dog in Alaska is
absolutely dependent upon man for subsistence, and he seems to realise
it.
There is a great deal of cruelty and brutality amongst dog drivers in
Alaska. At times, it is true, most dogs need some punishment. Dogs
differ as much as men do, and some are lazy and some are self-willed.
The best of them will develop bad trail habits if they are allowed
to--habits which will prove hard to break by and by and be a continual
source of delay and annoyance until broken. But a very slight
punishment, judicially administered at the moment, will usually suffice
just as well as a severe one, and the main source of brutality in the
punishment of dogs is sheer bad temper on the part of the driver, and
has for its only possible end, not the correction of the animal's fault
but the satisfaction of its owner's rage. To see some hulking,
passionate brute lashing a poor little dog with a chain, or beating him
with a club; to see dogs overworked to utter exhaustion and their
lagging steps still hastened by a rain of blows, these are the sickening
sights of the trail--and they are not uncommon. The language of most dog
drivers to their dogs consists of a mixture of cursing and ribaldry,
excused by the statement that only by the use of such speech may dogs be
driven at all. But there is little point in the excuse; such speech is,
to an extent not far from universal, the speech of the country. Swedes
who have little and Indians who have none other English will yet be
volubly profane and obscene; in the latter case often with complete
ignorance of the meaning of the terms. Yet it must be recorded not
ungratefully by the impartial observer that the rare presence of a
decent woman or a clergyman will almost always put a check upon
blackguardly speech, even that of a dog driver; women and clergymen
being supposed the only two classes who could have any possible
objection to foulness of mouth. To refer continually to the excrements
of the body, to sexual commerce, natural and unnatural, all in the
grossest terms, and to mix these matters intimately with the sacred
names, is "manly" speech amongst a large part of the population of
Alaska.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: REINDEER]
[Sidenote: REINDEER AS DRAUGHT ANIMALS]
It has been claimed with justice that the introduction of the reindeer
into Alaska has been highly successful; yet there is much misconception
amongst people "outside" as to the nature of that success. Stimulated by
the example of the United States Government, and urged thereto by Doctor
Wilfred Grenfell and others, the Canadian Government is now introducing
reindeer into Labrador; and the distinguished missionary physician,
whose recent decoration gives lustre to the royal bestower as well as to
the recipient, has publicly announced his hope that these domesticated
herbivora will "eliminate that scourge of the country, the husky dog."
To announce such a hope, based upon any results in Alaska, is to
announce misconception of the nature of the success which has attended
Doctor Sheldon Jackson's "reindeer experiment." There is not a dog the
less in Alaska because of the reindeer, nor ever will be; in so far as
similarity of conditions warrant us in expecting similar results, it is
safe to predict that the reindeer will never "eliminate the husky dog"
in Labrador.
But before discussing the success of the reindeer experiment and its
lack of any bearing upon the number or the usefulness of the dog, the
writer would pause to take strong exception to the description of the
husky dog as the "scourge" of Labrador, and would insist that any such
wholesale condemnation is a boomerang that returns upon the head of the
Labradorian who uses it. For, as the dog is one of the most adaptable of
all domestic animals, and is, to an amazing extent, what his master
makes him, to bring a railing accusation against the whole race of dogs
is in reality to accuse those who breed and rear them.
Why should the dog have richly earned the gratitude and affection of all
the world except Labrador? Why should he be called the "Friend of Man"
everywhere except amongst these particular people? Far to the north of
them the Esquimaux prize and cherish their dogs. Throughout the whole
wide region to the west and northwest of them the dog is man's
indispensable ally and faithful servant. The same husky dog has made
good his claim upon man in Alaska. It is he and his brother, the
malamute, that have opened up Alaska so far as it has been opened;
without whom to-day the development of the country would suddenly cease.
And to the question that is often asked "outside," as to whether the
Alaskan dog is not a savage beast, it is justly replied: "Not unless he
happens to belong to a savage beast." Is it really otherwise anywhere?
Instead of the reindeer eliminating the dog, there is far greater
likelihood of the dog eliminating the reindeer; and the professed dog
lover, indignant at the opprobrious term applied to a whole race of
dogs, may be disposed to echo Lady Macbeth's wish: "May good digestion
wait on appetite."
So far as substituting another draught animal for the dog is concerned,
if the whole equine tribe, even down to Manchurian ponies should for
some strange reason be out of the question, the Canadian Government had
better import the polar ox or the yak. It is only amongst a nomadic
people, whose main quest is pasturage, that the reindeer is a
satisfactory draught animal. When introduced into Alaska there was
doubtless expectation that he would be generally useful in this
capacity. For a while certain mail-routes on the Seward Peninsula were
served by him, and here and there a deluded prospector put his
grub-stake on a reindeer sled. It is safe to say that no reindeer are so
employed to-day. They were soon abandoned on the mail trails, and the
prospector, after one season's experience, slaughtered his reindeer and
traded its meat and hide for a couple of dogs.
Consider that the reindeer feeds upon one thing alone, the moss that is
named after him, and that while this moss is very widely distributed
indeed, throughout Alaska, it is not found at all in the river valleys
or the forests, but only upon the treeless hills at considerable
elevation. Now the rivers are the highways. It is on their frozen
surface, or on "portage" trails through the woods, that the greater part
of all travelling is done and, in particular, that established routes of
regular communication are maintained. To leave the trail after a day's
journey, to wander miles into the hills, to herd the deer while they
browse from slope to slope, digging the snow away in search of their
provender, is wholly incompatible with any sustained or regular travel.
The reindeer is a timid and almost defenceless creature. Wolves and
lynxes prey upon him. One lynx is thought to have killed upward of
twenty head in one season out of the herd that was stationed at Tanana,
leaping upon the backs of the creatures, cutting their throats, sucking
their blood, and riding them until they dropped and died. A few dogs
will soon work havoc in a herd. So the reindeer must be constantly
protected and at the same time must have range over a considerable scope
of country. The care of reindeer is a business in itself, not a mere
detail of the business of transportation or travel.
[Sidenote: DOG FOOD]
On the other hand, the dog's ration for many days is carried on the sled
he hauls. There is a definite limit to it, of course, and knowledge of
this limit made every experienced dog driver incredulous, from the
first, of Doctor Cook's claim to have travelled some eleven hundred
miles, from Etah to the North Pole and back, with a team of dogs hauling
their own food. It is possible, however, on fair trails, with rigid
economy, to travel five hundred miles and haul dog food and man food and
the other indispensables of a long journey; and that is twice as far as
it is ever necessary to travel in the interior of Alaska without
reaching a supply point, the northern slope to the Arctic Ocean
excepted.
Perhaps it would be putting it better to say that a team of seven dogs
can haul their own and their driver's food and the camp equipment, all,
of course, carefully reduced to a minimum, for a month. Dog food of one
sort or another can be bought at any place where anything whatever is
sold. Almost any Indian village will furnish dried fish, and it is often
possible, with no other weapon than a .22 rifle, to feed dogs largely on
the country through which they pass. The writer's team has had many a
meal of ptarmigan, rabbits, quail, and spruce hen, while to enumerate
other articles, on which at times and in stress for proper food, his
dogs have sustained life and strength for travel, would be to enumerate
all the common human comestibles. Aside from the usual ration of fish,
tallow, and rice boiled together, corn-meal, beans, flour, oatmeal, sago
(though that is poor stuff), tapioca, canned meats of all kinds, canned
salmon, even canned kippered herring from Scotland, seal oil, seal and
whale flesh, ham and bacon, horse flesh, moose and caribou and
mountain-sheep flesh, canned "Boston brown bread," canned butter, canned
milk, dried apples, sugar, cheese, crackers of all kinds, and a score of
other matters have at times entered into their food. Dogs have been
"tided over" tight places for days and days on horse oats boiled with
tallow candles, working the while. Anything that a man can eat, and much
that even a starving man would scarcely eat, will make food for dogs. At
the last and worst, dog can be fed to dog and even to man. When a dog
team reaches a mining camp where supplies of all sorts are scarce--and
that is not an uncommon experience--it is sometimes an exceedingly
expensive matter to feed it; but something can always be found that
will serve to keep it going until the return to a better-stocked region.
In the winter of 1910-11, when there was such scarcity in the Iditarod,
it cost the writer thirty-nine dollars and fifty cents to feed seven
dogs for a week, and he has more than once been at almost a similar
charge in the Koyukuk. But in all his travels he has never yet been
unable to procure some sort of food for his dogs. At times they have
been fed for days on rabbits straight; at times on ptarmigan straight.
[Sidenote: THE REINDEER'S USEFULNESS]
Speaking broadly, the reindeer is a stupid, unwieldy, and intractable
brute, not comparing for a moment with the dog in intelligence or
adaptability. The common notion that his name is derived from the use of
reins in driving him, thus putting him in the class with the horse, is a
mistake; the word comes from a Norse root which refers to his
moss-browsing habit. The "rein" with which he is driven is a rope tied
around one of his horns. He has no cognisance of "gee" and "haw," nor of
any other vocal direction, but must be yanked hither and thither with
the rope by main force; while to stop him in his mad career, once he is
started, it is often necessary to throw him with the rope. In Lapland
there are doubtless individual deer better trained; the Lap herders tell
of them with pride; but in the main this is a just description of
reindeer handling. All the chief herders in Alaska are Laps, brought
over for their knowledge of the animals, and the writer has repeatedly
ridden behind some of their best deer.
Wherein, then, lies the success of the reindeer experiment in Alaska?
Chiefly in the provision of a regular meat supply by which the natives
and whites in the vicinity of a herd are relieved from the
precariousness of the chase or the rapacity of the cold-storage butcher
company. The Esquimau, having served his allotted apprenticeship of five
years and entered upon possession of a herd, can at any time kill and
dress a "kid of the flock" for his family or for the market. The price
of butcher's meat has been kept down all over the Seward Peninsula by
the competition of the numerous reindeer herds, to the comfort of the
population and the exasperation of the butcher company, and many an
Esquimau has become passably rich. The skin of the animal also furnishes
a warm and much-needed material for clothing and finds a ready sale at a
good price.
This success is, however, confined so far to the coast. The herds have
not thriven in the interior and have now all been withdrawn to the
coast. Beasts of prey killed them; a hoof disease destroyed many; others
are supposed to have died from eating some poisonous fungus. In five or
six years the herd at Tanana had not increased at all, but rather
diminished, and the same is true of the other herds on the Yukon. The
Indian, moreover, does not take to herding as the Esquimau does, and can
hardly be induced to the segregation of himself and his family from his
tribe which reindeer herding involves. The "apprentices" on the Yukon
were nearly all of them Esquimaux from the coast.
It may be that the salt of the coast region is essential to the
well-being of the reindeer; it is not so with the caribou--and the
reindeer is nothing but a domesticated caribou--many herds of which, in
the interior of Alaska, never visit the coast at all; but all caribou
herds have their salt-licks, and one wishes that the oft-recommended
plan of furnishing salt for the herds in the interior had been adopted
by the government for a season before their removal was determined upon.
Like most other "resources" of Alaska, the imported reindeer, at first
decried and ridiculed, has now become the slender foundation for
extravagant speculations of prosperity. The "millions of acres waiting
for the plough" in the interior have lately been supplemented in this
visionary treasury by the capitalisation of the vast tundras of the
coast, the golden wheat-fields of the one finding counterpart in the
multitudinous herds of the other. The growing dearth of cattle-range in
the United States offers, it seems, to Alaska the opportunity of
supplying the American market with meat, and the kindling fancy of the
enthusiastic "booster" sees trains loaded with frozen reindeer meat
rolling into Chicago.
While the reindeer will never supersede the dog as a draught animal
anywhere, the horse is rapidly superseding him on good trails in the
more settled and peopled regions. In the Fairbanks and Nome districts,
in the Circle and Koyukuk districts, in the Fortymile and in the
Iditarod--in all districts where any extensive mining is carried
on--heavy freights are moved by horses, and this tendency will doubtless
increase rather than diminish. The dog team cannot compete with the
horse team when it comes to moving heavy loads over good trails. The
grain that the horse eats is imported, and in the main will probably
always be imported, but oats cut green and properly cared for make
excellent fodder, and the native hay, while not nearly as nutritious as
the imported timothy, will sufficiently supplement grain.
We hear a great deal nowadays of the benefits which are to come to
Alaska from the railroad which the United States is expected to build
from tide-water to the Yukon, and the clamorous voices of the journalist
and the professional promoter and politician, which seem the only voices
which ever reach the ear of government, are insistent that this is the
one great thing that will bring prosperity to the country. Yet the
writer is confident that he expresses almost the unanimous opinion of
those who live in the country, outside of the classes mentioned, when he
says that if the amount of money which this railroad will cost were
expended upon good highways and trails the benefit would be much
greater. It is means of intercommunication between the various parts of
the country that is the great need of Alaska; some of its most promising
sections are almost inaccessible now or accessible only at great trouble
and expense. Access to the country itself, for the introduction of
merchandise, is furnished easily enough during three or four months of
the year by its incomparable system of waterways. Good highways, well
engineered and well maintained, over which horse teams could be used
summer and winter, would remove much of what at present is the almost
prohibitive cost of distributing that merchandise from river points.
Such roads would give an enormous stimulus to prospecting, and would
render it possible to work gold placers all over the country that are of
too low grade to be worked at the present rates of transportation. A
_really_ good highway from Valdez to Fairbanks and the making of the
long-ago begun Valdez-Eagle road; a good highway from Fairbanks to the
upper Tanana as far as the Nabesna, connecting with the one from the
Copper River country and the coast; another from the Yukon into the
Koyukuk and the Chandalar; another from Fairbanks into the Kantishna,
connecting with one from the lower Kuskokwim and one from the Iditarod;
a road from Eagle across the almost unknown region (save for the line of
the 141st meridian) between the Yukon and the Porcupine Rivers; two or
three roads between the Yukon and the Tanana; a road from the Koyukuk to
Kotzebue Sound--these would constitute main arteries of travel and would
open up the country as no trunk railroad will ever do. The expense would
be great, both of construction and maintenance, but it would probably
not be greater than the cost of constructing and maintaining the
proposed railroad. Twenty or thirty ordinary freight trains a year would
bring in all the goods that Alaska consumes. Before that amount can be
very greatly increased there must be a large development of the means by
which it is to be distributed throughout the country.
Some day, perhaps, these roads will be made, and the horse, not the dog,
will be the draught animal upon them. Yet it would be a rash conclusion
that even then the time will be at hand when there will be no longer
use for the work dog in Alaska. Away from these main arteries of travel
he will still be employed. So long as great part of the land remains a
noble arctic wilderness; so long as the prospector strikes farther and
farther into the rugged mountains; so long as quick travel over great
stretches of country is necessary or desirable; so long as the salmon
swarm up the rivers to furnish food for the catching; so long as the
Indian moves from fishing camp to village and from village to hunting
camp--so long will the dog be hitched to the sled in Alaska; so long
will his joyful yelp and his plaintive whine be heard in the land; so
long will his warm tongue seek his master's hand, even the hand that
strikes him, and his eloquent eyes speak his utter allegiance.
INDEX
INDEX
Agriculture, 228, 229, 230, 231, 367
Alarm-clocks, 304
Alatna River, 70
Albert the pilot, 60
Allakaket, 190-195
Alphabet, 69
Amundsen, 292, 392
Animals, wild, 257, 276, 277, 298, 405
Anthropologists, 270
Arctic Ocean, 97, 98
Army posts: economic value, 151
discipline and life, 217
frequent changes, 217
surgeons, 218
Arthur, 158, 163
Athabascan language, 349
Atler, 170, 171
Auroras, 46, 380-391
Baker Creek Springs, 155
Bathing, 85
Beaver City, 345
Bering Sea, 129
Betticher, C. E., 254
Bettles, 54, 56, 63
Black fox, 258, 362
Blizzard, 40
Blossom Cape, 103, 106
Blow-holes, 13
Bluff, 126
Bompas, Bishop, 283
Brook, Alfred, 309
Burke, Dr., 158, 167, 169, 187
Caching, 17, 20, 70, 335
Camp: making details, 41, 42, 43
night made, 91
devices, 243
in wet snow, 302
Camp-Robbers, 335, 299, 300
Candle, 102
Candles, 108, 109
Caribou, 107, 409
Carter, Miss, 184
Chandalar: River, 26, 27, 35
village, 27, 28, 29, 34
Gap, 36, 37
Chatanika River, 4, 6, 8
Chena, 156, 249, 250
Chief Isaac, 263
Chinnik, 127
Choris Peninsula, 106
Circle City, 11, 20, 290
Clearwater Creek, 256
Clothes: drying, 42, 53
moose hide, 202, 203
tuberculosis, 306, 362
missions, 363
Coal, 92, 93
Coldfoot, 47, 48, 49
Cook, Dr., 405
Cooking: camp dishes, 43
cleanliness, 85
bear meat, 168
by relays, 209
for dog, 397
Council, 116
Creepers, 111
Cribbage, 124
Death Valley, 112, 113
Denali (Mt. McKinley), 225, 305
Deputy marshals, 365
Development schemes, 410, 411
Diphtheria, 28, 29, 32, 287, 313
Disease: epidemic, 6; _cf._ diphtheria, measles, tuberculosis
Dishkaket, 332
Disinfectants, 32
Dogs: price of, 4
frozen toes, 8
sled, 20, 25, 45
beds, 42
food, 44, 407
harness, 45
tails, 45
fight, 93
digging up snow, 110
helpless on smooth ice, 113
conscience, 115
on fish food, 115
with reindeer, 119, 120
refuse to lead, 125
preference for land trails, 129
intelligence, 139, 156; _cf._ Nanook
strength, 174
dislike wet feet, 178
cost of boarding, 181
in trail making, 200
in soft weather, 213
suffering on steep trails, 214
companionship, 223
moccasin leggings, 224
houses, 232, 237
play, 234
intelligence, 234, 237
sleeping, 235
thieving, 236
partners of man, 238
working life, 239
frozen foot, 253
with no coat, 275
and Indians, 291
howling, 303, 304
stray, 320, 321
general characteristics, 392-402
cost of maintenance, 396
ill used by whites, 397
Eagle, 285
Eagle Summit, 10, 11
Education: spread of English, 23, 24
phonograph, 52
scientific, 58
novel methods, 80
ignorance of native language, 81
artificial methods, 131
mission, 132, 355
Egbert Fort, 286
Endicott Mountains, 62
Esquimaux: sense of humour, 51, 87
isolated, 62
huts, 70
as hunters, 75
prayers, 82
music, 82
morality, 83
industry, 86
Sabbatarianism, 88
sense of distance, 91
fish eating, 92
gut windows, 94
devoutness, 95
sleeping customs, 95
undemonstrativeness, 95
igloos, 96
non-alcoholic, 99
tobacco, 99
hospitality, 106
carving, 124
singing, 130
attitude of white men toward, 134
snow goggles, 146
kindly manners, 182
antipathy to Indians, 185, 265
superstitions, 191, 269
Fairbanks, 156, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 382
Farthing, Miss, 244, 246, 247, 248
Fish Creek, 297
Forts: Alaskan, 342
Fortymilers, 280
Fortymile River, 281, 282
Gambling, 279
Game, 257, 277, 325, 368, 369, 406
Gold train, 5
Greek Church, 310, 322
Grenfell, Dr., 402
Grimm, Charles, 56
Half-breeds, 315, 316, 318, 319
Hamlin, Fort, 342
Hammond River, 47
Hans, 102, 103, 105
Hip-ring, 226
Hobo, the frozen, 134, 135
Hogatzitna, 76
Horses, 409, 410, 411
Hospitality, _cf._ Esquimaux and Indians, 49
Hot Springs, 227, 228
Hotham Inlet, 96
Hudson Bay Company, 21, 22
Husky, 392
Ice: glare, 9
rubber, 9, 179, 180
blow-holes, 13
bluffs, 79
mining, 126, 160, 161
jam, 167
breaking, 170
way to determine holding capacity, 179
Iditarod City, 294, 295, 296, 297, 327
Igloo, 96, 106
Indians: civilized, 24
uncivilized, 25
religion, 30
language, 141
trade with, 152, 153
diminishing, 153, 154
disease, 154
relations with whites, 173
dancing and sports, 189
preparation for death, 190
effect of civilization, 192, 193
lack of initiative, 197
demoralization, 216, 278, 279
birth-rate and death-rate, 217, 218
best education for, 245
women teachers, 246, 247
kindliness, 254
traders, 258
hospitality, 261, 303
missions, 263, 279
not savages, 264
fear of Esquimaux, 265
peaceable, 266
not idolators, 267
Christianity, 268, 270
moral character, 285
pauperization, 288, 289
cruelty to dogs, 291
effect of reproof, 292
self-government, 293
whites, 293
epidemics, 308, 312, 313
at mercy of traders, 311
half-breed, 315
and whites, 317, 318
meat carriers, 332
carving, 334
general discussion of, 348-370
and photographs, 378
Interpreters, 154, 155, 186
Jackson, Dr. S., 402
Jade Mountains, 89
Jette, Fr., 140, 141
John River, 62
Journalism, 250
Kikitaruk, 98, 102
Knapp, 100
Kobuk: River, 63, 76
Mountains, 74
missionary, 80
town, 182
Kobuks, 51
Kotzebue, 106, 107
Sound, 63, 97, 102
Koyukuk: River, 39, 40, 48, 52, 65, 384
Canon, 52
deserted towns, 65
Indians, 158, 142
mission, 183
Krusenstern, 97
Kuskokwim River, 322, 323
Lamps, 34
Langdon, Captain, 288
Launch, motor, 158, 159, 160, 161, 163
Lewis Cut-Off, 333
Lingo, 51, 115, 239
London, Jack, 265
Long Beach, 84, 88
Lookout Mountain, 61
Loomis, Dr., 296
Lower ramparts, 219
Lunar: phenomena, 18, 157
eclipse, 78
Lynx, 405
MacDonald, Archdeacon, 22, 23, 30, 31
Magistrates, 364
Mail carrying, 215, 331
Malamute, 392
Mal-de-raquet, 201
Mansfield Lake, 271
Matches, 243
Measles, 312
Medicine men, 246, 247, 267, 268
Melozitna, 209
Menthol balm, 201
Meteorological: phenomena, heat radiation, 55
rain, rare in winter, 134
local weather changes, 144
variable climate in Alaska, 188
cause of fluctuating temperature readings, 195, 196
Minchumina, 307, 308
Lake, 303
Mining: towns and camps, 5, 6, 11, 12, 47, 48, 65, 251, 252
town morality, 83, 84, 328, 354
luxurious life, 108, 122
fires, 116, 330
on beach, 123
in ice, 126
decayed, 221, 222, 223, 284
primitive methods, 281, 282
claims, 295
flimsy buildings, 328
morals, 329
services in, 330
missionaries, 331
agriculture, 366
Mirage, 90
Mission stations: schools, 355, 358
clothing, 363, 369
isolated, 369
Missionary: nurse, 33
methods, 69, 81, 84, 194, 195, 307
Moccasins, 7
Money, 64
Moses' Village, 65, 180
Mountain: sunshine, 61
temperature, 61
Mukluk, 7, 19, 86
Mush, 200, 214
Nanook, 200, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 240
Natural religion, 58, 191, 267
Nelson, 161, 162
Nenana, 244, 245
Nicoli's Village, 322
Noatak, 90
Nome, 120, 122, 123
Northern Commercial Company, 241
Norton: Bay, 127
Sound, 117
Nose protection, 87, 145
Noyutak Lake, 76
Nulato, 48, 140
massacre, 142, 143
Old Woman Mountain, 135
One-eyed William, 172, 173, 174
Overflow: water, 6, 7, 27, 37
ice, 9
Paraselene, 57
Parkee, 35, 71
Peary, Admiral, 393
Pedometer, 73
Petersen, 114, 115
Photographing, 241, 242
Photography, 371-379
Place names, 326
Point Hope, 3, 56, 97, 99, 100
Potatoes, 229
Potlatch, 310, 353
Prevost, Jules, 154
Prices, 324, 327, 362
trading, 362, 396, 407
Prospectors: in winter, 78
and Esquimaux, 88
pinching out, 92
ruined, 146
self-reliance, 161, 162
poet, 322
imagination, 326
knowledge of Bible, 328
dogs, 399
visions, 409
railways, 410
Ptarmigan, 325
Quikpak River, 153
Raft, 256
Ragarou, Fr., 147
Railroads, 410, 411
Rampart City, 221, 222, 223, 338, 339
Rasmunsen, 392
Reading matter, 77, 205, 324, 325, 336
Red Mountain, 176
Reindeer, 119, 120, 402, 405, 407, 409
Roadhouse accommodation, 34, 324
gambling, 128
keepers of, 132
talk, 289
poet, 321, 322
reading matter, 324, 325
Arctic travel reminiscences, 335
Roxy, 70, 71, 72, 87, 91, 96, 101
Russian Alaska, 142, 143: Church of, _cf._ Greek Church
Saint John's-in-the-Wilderness, 188, 195
Salchaket, 254
Scientists, 269, 270
Seasons, 230
Seward Peninsula, 109, 111, 112, 113
Signal corps, 135, 136, 137, 220
Sishwoymina, 309
Siwashing, 41, 67, 138, 392, 394
Slate Creek, 46
Sled: width, 110
brake, 113
overturning, 113, 114
improvised, 164
in soft snow, 166
use of willow saplings, 167, 179
gee pole, 220
convertible rig, 275
unpacking, 345
harness, 397
team, 397
weight carried, 398
dog rations, load, 405
Sleeping bag, 104, 105
Smoke, 54
Snow banners, 39
melting, 42
glasses, 145, 146
blindness, 146, 147, 148, 290
Snow-shoes, 7, 346
Society of Friends, 99
Solar: light, effect on speed-shutters, 374
phenomena, 15, 16, 31, 39, 45, 57, 73, 74, 90, 103, 211
Solomon's, 126
Speed, 17, 20, 60, 75, 91, 96, 97, 110, 130, 198, 199, 299, 337
Squirrel River, 93, 94, 95
Starvation, 184, 185
Stefanson, 88, 268, 269
Summit, 11
Takotna, 323
Tanana, 150, 151, 152, 216, 217, 255, 256, 258, 271, 273, 274, 337, 369
River, 155, 255, 256
Tapis, 271
Telegraph system, 136
Temperature: low, travel, 14
animal life, 16
in river bottoms, 19, 50, 61
effect on lamps, 34
on parts of the body, 36
on log huts, 37
condensation, 53
smoke, 54
clear weather, 55
wind, 57
emotional power, 59
death from freezing, 61, 66, 68
cleanliness, 86
altitude, effect of, 204
greatest cold, effect of, 206
fluctuations, 212
confinement, 215
effect on cameras and films, 372, 374
on emulsions, 376, 377
and auroras, 381
high, 301
effect on dirt roof, 346
on Yukon River, 347
Thermos bottle, 261
Toboggan, 13, 37, 38, 46, 89
Topkok, 117
Town crier, 278
Tozitna, 209, 213
Trader: anti-monopolist, 241
profits, 334
missions, 258
articles sold to Indians, 361
Trading monopoly, 144
Trail: river, 2, 13, 37
dry and wet, 7
mountain, 10, 38
width, 15
lost, 18, 19, 67, 104, 320
blazed, 26
wind-swept, 40
in snow, 72, 138
breaking, 74, 75
exchange, 75
with hard crust, 109
telephone, 118
effect of horses on, 149, 150
cutting, 176
making, 198
always serpentine, 198
staked, 198, 210
widening, 202
stage, 254
double tripping, 298
in soft snow, 301
swampy, 332
Yukon, 336
in gale, 340
"sidling," 341
at night, 344
in thaw, 346, 347
found by aurora, 384
Tsormina, 308
Tuberculosis, 359, 360
Twelve-Mile Summit, 9
Unalaklik, 132
Walter, 314, 321, 336, 341
Whiskey, 153, 222, 363
White, John, 121
Wind: protection against, 35
different local velocities, 37
physical labour, 46
in extreme cold, 57
as a malignant spirit, 112
high velocities, 219
in The Ramparts, 338
Wiseman, 47
Wolf, 395
Yukon, 12, 139, 153, 219, 336, 351
Flats, 12, 13, 343
Fort, 21, 22, 24, 350
[Illustration: MAP OF THE INTERIOR OF ALASKA, SHOWING JOURNEYS DESCRIBED
IN THIS BOOK]
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Page 77, "Bergundy" changed to "Burgundy" (of Burgundy, with)
Page 97, "rouch" changed to "rough" (over the rough ice)
Page 306, sidenote "MINCHUMINA" changed to MINCHUMINA" (THE MINCHUMINA
FOLK)
Page 334, "Iditerod" changed to "Iditarod" (Iditarod, now a whole)
Page 361, "satteens" changed to "sateens" (velvets and sateens)
Page 418, "Minchumina" changed to "Minchumina" (Minchumina, 307, 308)
Page 420, "Unalaklik" changed to "Unalaklik" (Unalaklik, 132)
For this text version, the w with the grave accent is denoted by ['w].
End of Project Gutenberg's Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled, by Hudson Stuck